ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s not what you’d expect out of a stolen car stop in Albuquerque. Pulled over in the North Valley, the woman behind the wheel didn’t evade the deputy who stopped her, and as it turns out, she didn’t even try to hide the car’s status.
On a Thursday night in August, Bernalillo County Sheriff deputies spotted a gold Lexus driving near Edith and Osuna.
The car had been reported stolen out of Rio Rancho. This came as no surprise to the suspected driver, Stephanie Maurer, who gave the deputy an honest answer when they asked why she was pulled over.
Officer: “Why do you think we pulled you over?”
Maurer: “‘Cause I was speeding, or that car is stolen? I don’t know.”
When questioned by deputies on how she got the car, she said she bought it a few days prior for less than $1,000 from a man named G or George.
Maurer: “He just said he got it from a homie that owed him some gas. [He said] ‘You’re good. It’s all good. I got the title, and since you have the title, it’s all good.'”
Maurer said she thought because she got the title this time it would be different, but she still called G “sketchy.”
Maurer: “George steals anything.”
Officer: “But you still had that belief like, ‘Uh, this car might be stolen.'”
Maurer: “Yeah, and I hadn’t driven it.”
Inside the car, deputies reportedly found drugs and paraphernalia.
Officer: “Pills were on the seat. There’s some burnt foil [and] some lighters.”
Officer: “In the return, it said there was a gun inside the car when it got stolen, but we didn’t find a gun.”
Deputies found out Maurer had two warrants out for her arrest, and she was taken to the Albuquerque Transport Unit to be booked.
Maurer was booked for driving on a revoked license, receiving a stolen vehicle, and multiple counts of possession.
